Wire or rod is typically made by a combined rolling/drawing process to produce large coils that are themselves subject to batch-type treatments, for instance annealing. To this end the coils are typically transported on heavy-duty hook conveyors having a succession of hooks on each of which is suspended a respective wire coil. The conveyor extends through the various treatment stations for the bar or wire.
The system which produces the bars or wires formed into the coils normally treats the starting and trailing end of the material somewhat roughly. Furthermore in a drawing operation the starting and trailing ends are typically offsize. Thus these pieces must be cut from the material.
Typically this is done immediately upstream of the machine that forms the material into one or more coils and deposits the coils on a loop conveyor belt. A high-speed shear is used which must not interfere with the rapid loading of the still-hot rod or wire into the coiler, since the stock must be coiled hot. Alternately it has been proposed to cut the ends off after the coil is formed, on the conveyor belt, but this is fairly tricky, especially with respect to getting the offcuts out of the way, that is off the conveyor. Similar disruptions are encountered when a so-called sickle shear is used right in the coiler.
Thus recourse is often had to a system where two workers operating power shears clip the outside turns off the coils when they are on the hook conveyor. Such a manual procedure is extremely costly and requires skilled machine operators who must cut through the material and then pull off the unwanted turns.